The avionics systems of modern aircraft are increasingly less “centralized” and increasingly more “distributed”.
Thus, centralized architectures, comprising a relatively complex central computer connected by multiple electrical cables to actuators that it drives or to sensors that supply it with measurement data, are being replaced by distributed architectures comprising a certain number of “remote” computers situated in proximity to the actuators and the sensors. These remote computers are possibly linked to a computation-dedicated “core” computer.
The splitting up of the central computer into a plurality of remote computers makes it possible to reduce the weight of the aircraft through the simplification of the wiring, and to reduce the cost of the avionics systems, notably by virtue of the fact that the remote computers and the core computer are now designed to be generic computers that can be incorporated in different systems. This splitting up also makes it possible to improve the availability of the systems which can operate in degraded mode and which offer more numerous reconfiguration possibilities in the event of failure of a remote computer, of an actuator or of a sensor.
A certain number of architectures have been proposed to distribute, on the one hand, the braking system of the wheels of the aircraft (of which the implementation of the anti-skid function requires the speed of rotation of the braked wheel to be measured), and, on the other hand, the system for monitoring operating parameters of the landing gear (temperature of the brakes, pressure of the tyres, etc.). In each of these architectures, a relatively large number of electrical cables still run to the landing gears, which is detrimental in terms of weight and reliability.